In this series we’ll take a fresh look at resources and how they are used. We’ll go beyond natural resources like air and water to look at how efficiency in raw materials can boost the bottom line and help the environment. We’ll also examine the circular economy and design for reuse — with an eye toward honoring those resources we do have.

While changes at home can’t solve the many environmental crises we face today, they can sure help. Through this series, we’ll explore how initiatives like curbside compost pick-up, rebates on compost bins, and efficient appliances can help families reduce their impact without breaking the bank.

Despite decades -- centuries even -- of global efforts, slavery can still be found not just on the high seas, but around the world and throughout various supply chains. Through this series on forced labor, sponsored by C&A Foundation, we’ll explore many different types of bonded and forced labor and highlight industries where this practice is alive and well today.

In this series we examine how companies should respond to national controversy like police violence and the BLM movement to best support employees and how can companies work to improve equality by increasing diversity in their ranks directly.

Compost is often considered a panacea for the United States’ tremendous food waste problem. Indeed, composting is a much better option than putting spoiled food in a garbage can destined for a landfill.

Last month, the World Resources Institute (WRI) released the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, an online tool offering users real-time data to create customizable and high-resolution maps of water risk. Partners of WRI include GE, Goldman Sachs, Shell, Bloomberg and the governments of the Netherlands and Sweden. Companies such as McDonald’s and Bank of America are already using Aqueduct to evaluate local water scarcity challenges and to inform investors about risks and opportunities related to water.

Such a tool is critically important because water has emerged as a leading supply chain risk for companies worldwide. At least 1.2 billion people confront water scarcity daily, often in regions where companies are investing in factories and farmland. According to the UN, much of the global water crisis is behavioral: during the 20th century, water use surged at twice the rate of population growth.

Aqueduct is intuitive to use and, quite bluntly, is a glorious, yet disturbing, time-suck for those interested in learning about the various factors affecting water scarcity. Users simply choose amongst 12 various water risk factors, from flood occurrence to groundwater stress to even threatened amphibians. An option to gauge risk by nine various industry descriptions is available as well. If you want your concern to shift from worry to depression, check out the projected change in water stress scenarios, which offer chilling outlooks for 2025, 2050 and 2095.

For sustainability professionals actively engaged in water risk assessment, Aqueduct also offers news stories detailing challenges across the world. Users can also download the data they need into Excel and in a nod towards transparency, access to data sources and methodology are readily available. WRI also complements Aqueduct with a bevy of reports covering water scarcity and risks across the globe.

Watch for more companies to turn to tools such as Aqueduct and others to learn more about market risk. As WRI’s Betsy Otto points out, water is a stubbornly complicated problem. Obviously, water scarcity has a huge impact on food production and pricing; but water risk is not just affecting arid regions, and some regions such as the American West and northern China are gobsmacked by a high variability in water supply year after year–which causes volatility in a variety of sectors from farming to technology manufacturing. Water risk also involves many dimensions, and factors such as groundwater depletion and flooding are increasing in scope across the world. Add the fact that we still do not price water fairly and effectively, and the problem will only worsen for companies, their supply chains and of course, people. So forget the phrase, “water is the next oil”…because we have already arrived. There is too much red on these maps to think otherwise.

Hey Dave, yeah I’m noticing that too. I assume you’re looking either at the image in the article or, if you went into Aqueduct itself, you’re looking at baseline water stress, i.e. annual water withdrawals versus annual water flows or supply, and not any of the other categories of water risk.

From what I understand (and also assume), I think that probably the communities that DO pull their water from the great lakes are mostly just those communities that sit directly on the lakes, and the communities that are farther up-shore from the lakes (even just a few miles) might rely on other water sources (streams, rivers, aquifers, or reservoirs that pull from upstream rivers, etc) because pumping water uphill can get expensive kinda fast.

given all that, maybe the problem is one of granularity in the map data, i.e. the data is not location specific enough to distinguish between towns/places at a mile-by-mile kind of scale.